Chapter Three — double breakthrough
Max sat cross-legged on the floor, his back straight, his breathing slow and measured.
The room was silent—save for the faint hum of life essence threading through everything. The walls. The air. Even the space between his thoughts.
Kaelion's memories lingered at the edges of his mind, but one stood out with startling clarity: a single, familiar technique.
The basic life essence absorption method.
It was distributed freely throughout the Arkan Empire—It wasn't particularly rare or special, but it was the only one kaelion knew.
Max followed it step by step.
He regulated his breathing.
Stilled his thoughts.
Reached outward with his awareness.
The first step was to sense life essence—that existed not just in the air, but everywhere. In the environment. In the world itself.
This came easily.
Having lived his entire life in a world utterly devoid of essence, the contrast was overwhelming. The air felt thick, saturated, alive with so much energy that it was like a fish suddenly finding itself on land—the difference was immediate.
The next step was to guide it inward.
That, too, he did with surprising ease.
Essence flowed into his body naturally, warm and light, circulating along familiar internal paths. As it moved, twelve distinct points of light ignited within him.
These were the twelve meridians.
Two in each limb. Four along the spine, running from the tailbone to the base of the brain.
Of which one shone brighter than the rest.
The meridian in his right palm.
It was the only one Kaelion had ever managed to open—years ago—before hitting a wall so absolute it had halted his progress entirely.
Not even the tier 0 evolution potion bought by his was effective after that.
Yet now, as if that barrier had never existed, a second meridian began to glow.
And it wasn't slowing down.
At the Rank 0 stage, the method of advancement was simple: accumulate life essence within a meridian until it reached saturation, then use it to force open the node allowing essence to circulate freely.
Once enough meridians were opened and connected, essence would naturally begin to gather at the core.
That was how one stepped into Rank 1.
Max hesitated.
From Kaelion's memories, he knew this wasn't how it was supposed to go. Even prodigies took days—sometimes weeks—to fill a single meridian.
Yet it had been less than ten minutes.
And the second meridian was already nearly half as bright as the first.
Essence continued to pour into him, steady and unrestrained, like an open channel he hadn't known existed.
He almost stopped.
This had been meant as an experiment Afterall, A curious test to how it actually felt to cultivate.
But then Kaelion's memories surfaced unbidden. Months of effort. Endless repetition. Countless failures. All chasing this exact moment.
Max clenched his jaw.
He doubled down on his effort.
Essence surged in response.
The second meridian brightened rapidly, its glow intensifying until it stood shoulder to shoulder with the first.
Then—
He felt it.
A faint resistance. A thin, brittle restriction.
But before he could even acknowledge its existence, it shattered—like glass breaking under pressure.
The sensation that followed was… quiet.
A sudden lightness spread through him, as if a weight he'd never noticed had been lifted away. Like the chains that held him bound just loosened a bit.
It was still there just… freer.
Max's eyes snapped open.
"…Huh?"
He sat there, unmoving, a faint sheen of essence still clinging to his skin as energy continued to circulate through the newly opened pathway.
A memory surfaced.
Kaelion—sweating, shaking, teeth clenched—trying again and again to force open that same meridian. Night after night. Failure after failure.
Max swallowed.
"What… the hell?" he murmured. "That—wasn't that too easy?"
He stayed still for several minutes, half-expecting something to go wrong.
Nothing did.
After a long, steadying breath, he closed his eyes again.
"Okay," he muttered. "Let's see."
This time, he worked slowly.
Deliberately.
He guided essence toward a third meridian, letting it gather at a measured pace. Minutes stretched into an hour. Then another. He made no attempt to rush, carefully monitoring every sensation.
Then he felt the same pressure again—the same restriction. Only for it to fall just as easily as before.
Just like that.
The meridian opened.
Another wave of elevation washed through him, just as intense as the first.
Max's breath caught as his eyes slowly opened.
In them there was no triumph. No exhilaration.
Only a pure and unfettered disbelief.
"…You've got to be kidding me."
His heart began to race as the implications settled in—he just unlocked two meridians in barely two hours.
And even that was only because he'd chosen to slow down himself.
If he continued at this pace—
"Holy shi—"
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
The sudden sound shattered his focus.
Max jolted as the room's calm was torn apart, the gathered essence scattering to the sound echoing from somewhere.
He turned his gaze sharply, pulse still racing.
"…What now?"